[Post-Mortem] Rogue Trooper
We sit down with the Lead Designer, Audio/Music Lead and Head of Production to get the skinny on what went into making one of this year's best third-person shooters.
Published: June 19, 2006
TotalPlayStation: When did the idea to do a game based on the Rogue series actually take shape?
Alex Moore: We always knew that there was interest in 2000AD titles and, towards the end of Dredd, we began looking at which storyline we wanted do next. The original Rogue storyline lent itself very well to a game, and there always was a large fan following for Rogue, so it made sense. Equally, we felt that we could do something very cool with the license.
Mike Burnham: Once the initial decision to do the title was made I came on board to put together a strong design and an equally stronger team to do it justice. Being a fan of Rogue I jumped at the chance.
TPS: Was it always conceived as a third-person shooter, or did it start as a FPS? Given your history (Sniper Elite notwithstanding), the mind sort of defaults to FPS mode when hearing the Rebellion name.
MB: First person cameras can embed you in a world but you tend to lose contact with the character. A third person camera allows the player to connect with the coolness of the character not just what that character can do. Added to this there was a concern that the already slightly disembodied voices of your dead comrades would be even harder to place if you never saw the pieces of equipment Helm or Bagman are embedded in.
AM: Also Rogue is a very athletic character and has a great advantage over the Norts in the way he can move around the environment. 3rd person enables us to implement cover, vaulting and diving much more easily than 1st person, so right from the start the camera mode was set. A lot of work was done through out to make it feel more like a 1st person game when controlling Rogue, and ensuring that the camera never got in the way of the action.
TPS: How did the idea of having all the powerups coming from Bagman evolve?
MB: The biochips all had to offer more than just advice, they needed to be squad mates that could open up gameplay options for the player through out the game.
AM: We had a design forum where anyone on the team could post ideas, and early on we were planning on having a separate upgrade screen for each biochip, with each chip having two slots for upgrades, and potentially 4 different things to plug in, thus allowing players to try different setups and approaches to situations.
MB: Unfortunately this was deemed too complex level design wise and never actually got off the drawing board…
AM: …but the idea seeded the upgrade system that later came to fruition. As salvage is our monetary system it was an obvious step to have it be Bagman that actually manufactures the upgrades as well as the ammunitions. Though don’t ask me how he upgrades Helm’s sensors thus allowing for a better holodecoy
TPS: The PS2 hardware is getting a little long in the tooth. Did you guys program for it as a baseline and than scale up for the Xbox and PC versions, or was it more of a case of trying to ham-fist whatever code would work into the machine. It runs quite well for the most part, and there's some stuff in place that actually seems beyond what the PS2 is capable of.
AM: Although the PS2 was our lead platform our Asura toolset allows artists to create high-resolution textures and that work automatically by scaling appropriately for each format, thus allowing for Xbox and PC to use their graphics ram better without having to create twice the art.
MB: Certain elements work the other way and PS2 gamers will note various special effects looking particularly good on their format as the others start to get fill rate bound.
TPS: How closely were you able to follow the original storyline in terms of level design? Did anything get cut out for pacing or because it was simply too ambitious?
MB: We picked the original stories and levels with the game design firmly in mind and then brought in Gordon Rennie to work with us. Gordon has been a key 2000AD writer for years and has written Rogue Trooper for the last six or so years.
AM: Yes, Gordon did a fantastic job on the script, taking the original storyline from the comic and adapting it to suit what we needed for the game. The level designs were further developed in unison with the script, and Gordon got quite a kick out of seeing the Nort bases he’d written briefly about fleshed out into a full environment. Any extra objectives that required dialogue were quickly written by the designer and then passed onto Gordon to make it Rogue through and through.
TPS: For that matter, was there anything in general that was scrapped because it just got too big for the game's final concept?
AM: Some of the initial ideas for what the biochips could do were quite ‘out there’. Air strikes, Bagman as a surgeon to resurrect you if you’d been killed, playing through the game as Venus…
MB: Marauders, not to forget Micro mine golf (a dev team favorite).
TPS: Does the game use a new engine, or is it based off of something you guys built previously?
AM: Asura, our in-house engine, is constantly being improved, with new additions and optimizations going in weekly. When we did Dredd it was very early days for it, and it continued to gain improvements from World War Zero, Sniper Elite, Black Hawk Down and our various other titles.
MB: We are looking forwards and it’s getting stronger still with the addition of skilled staff at Strangelite studios and the staff of Core who have joined us recently and already added some amazing features.
AM: Also this is not just from a next-generation standpoint but also on the PS2, Xbox, and PSP.
TPS: How did the process go from concept art to level design? Was it a pretty cut-and-dry process or were there lots of revisions?
AM: Level designs are constantly iterated; no matter how good the planning stages are on paper there’s always something that either just doesn’t work or confuses players. Equally, with so many people working on a game, great ideas keep pouring in right throughout development. We can’t stick every cool idea in – we’d never release a game – but part of my job is looking at the ideas and working out if there is a way we can squeeze them in without blowing the schedule out of the water.
MB: and it’s my job to make sure the schedule doesn’t blow the gameplay out of the water.
Alex Moore: We always knew that there was interest in 2000AD titles and, towards the end of Dredd, we began looking at which storyline we wanted do next. The original Rogue storyline lent itself very well to a game, and there always was a large fan following for Rogue, so it made sense. Equally, we felt that we could do something very cool with the license.
Mike Burnham: Once the initial decision to do the title was made I came on board to put together a strong design and an equally stronger team to do it justice. Being a fan of Rogue I jumped at the chance.
TPS: Was it always conceived as a third-person shooter, or did it start as a FPS? Given your history (Sniper Elite notwithstanding), the mind sort of defaults to FPS mode when hearing the Rebellion name.
MB: First person cameras can embed you in a world but you tend to lose contact with the character. A third person camera allows the player to connect with the coolness of the character not just what that character can do. Added to this there was a concern that the already slightly disembodied voices of your dead comrades would be even harder to place if you never saw the pieces of equipment Helm or Bagman are embedded in.
AM: Also Rogue is a very athletic character and has a great advantage over the Norts in the way he can move around the environment. 3rd person enables us to implement cover, vaulting and diving much more easily than 1st person, so right from the start the camera mode was set. A lot of work was done through out to make it feel more like a 1st person game when controlling Rogue, and ensuring that the camera never got in the way of the action.
TPS: How did the idea of having all the powerups coming from Bagman evolve?
MB: The biochips all had to offer more than just advice, they needed to be squad mates that could open up gameplay options for the player through out the game.
AM: We had a design forum where anyone on the team could post ideas, and early on we were planning on having a separate upgrade screen for each biochip, with each chip having two slots for upgrades, and potentially 4 different things to plug in, thus allowing players to try different setups and approaches to situations.
MB: Unfortunately this was deemed too complex level design wise and never actually got off the drawing board…
AM: …but the idea seeded the upgrade system that later came to fruition. As salvage is our monetary system it was an obvious step to have it be Bagman that actually manufactures the upgrades as well as the ammunitions. Though don’t ask me how he upgrades Helm’s sensors thus allowing for a better holodecoy
TPS: The PS2 hardware is getting a little long in the tooth. Did you guys program for it as a baseline and than scale up for the Xbox and PC versions, or was it more of a case of trying to ham-fist whatever code would work into the machine. It runs quite well for the most part, and there's some stuff in place that actually seems beyond what the PS2 is capable of.
AM: Although the PS2 was our lead platform our Asura toolset allows artists to create high-resolution textures and that work automatically by scaling appropriately for each format, thus allowing for Xbox and PC to use their graphics ram better without having to create twice the art.
MB: Certain elements work the other way and PS2 gamers will note various special effects looking particularly good on their format as the others start to get fill rate bound.
TPS: How closely were you able to follow the original storyline in terms of level design? Did anything get cut out for pacing or because it was simply too ambitious?
MB: We picked the original stories and levels with the game design firmly in mind and then brought in Gordon Rennie to work with us. Gordon has been a key 2000AD writer for years and has written Rogue Trooper for the last six or so years.
AM: Yes, Gordon did a fantastic job on the script, taking the original storyline from the comic and adapting it to suit what we needed for the game. The level designs were further developed in unison with the script, and Gordon got quite a kick out of seeing the Nort bases he’d written briefly about fleshed out into a full environment. Any extra objectives that required dialogue were quickly written by the designer and then passed onto Gordon to make it Rogue through and through.
TPS: For that matter, was there anything in general that was scrapped because it just got too big for the game's final concept?
AM: Some of the initial ideas for what the biochips could do were quite ‘out there’. Air strikes, Bagman as a surgeon to resurrect you if you’d been killed, playing through the game as Venus…
MB: Marauders, not to forget Micro mine golf (a dev team favorite).
TPS: Does the game use a new engine, or is it based off of something you guys built previously?
AM: Asura, our in-house engine, is constantly being improved, with new additions and optimizations going in weekly. When we did Dredd it was very early days for it, and it continued to gain improvements from World War Zero, Sniper Elite, Black Hawk Down and our various other titles.
MB: We are looking forwards and it’s getting stronger still with the addition of skilled staff at Strangelite studios and the staff of Core who have joined us recently and already added some amazing features.
AM: Also this is not just from a next-generation standpoint but also on the PS2, Xbox, and PSP.
TPS: How did the process go from concept art to level design? Was it a pretty cut-and-dry process or were there lots of revisions?
AM: Level designs are constantly iterated; no matter how good the planning stages are on paper there’s always something that either just doesn’t work or confuses players. Equally, with so many people working on a game, great ideas keep pouring in right throughout development. We can’t stick every cool idea in – we’d never release a game – but part of my job is looking at the ideas and working out if there is a way we can squeeze them in without blowing the schedule out of the water.
MB: